Today we live in a multilingual world. More and more we see people who are speaking languages that are not our own. It is a real temptation at times to speak in a language that we think others do not understand.
Years ago, when I was serving a mission in Mexico, my companion and I did that and we were embarassed. This sweet lady came to the door when we knocked. She passed us as she went to the street to buy something from a vendor, and as she passed us going back into the house, she asked us to stay for just a moment.
My companion turned to me and asked me if I had seen the wrinkled nylon stockings hanging around her ankles. I responded that I had and that it was amusing.
When she came back to the door, her stockings were all pulled up and had no wrinkles in them at all. She had been educated in Texas and spoke English as well as my companion and I. We both felt foolish.
When I returned to the USA and entered school, I started an art class at Adam State College. Professor Hatfield had been to Mexico and expressed a fondness for the Mexican culture. I took advantage of that. Every assignment I turned in had some element from the culture I had learned to love when I was in Mexico. With every assignment that I turned in, two girls from Expanola, New Mexico would criticize the work quite sharply using their native Spanish. I listened quietly each time as they found fault with my work. By the end of the quarter, I managed to turn something in that they both liked. In my best Spanish, I leaned forward and thanked them for their kind remarks. That time I was on the other end of the situation.
We are currently in a Ward where we have a Deaf Sister that we are helping. She speaks American Sign Language and we are trying hard to learn enough ASL to speak with her and be understood and to understand. As I watch the interpreters each week convert the talks and songs into ASL, I see a different side of the message. Here too, we are learning the same lessons. It is important to speak so that everyone can understand and enjoy the conversation.
9 comments:
It is true with languages, but it is also true that even if we know the language, we sometimes take a different message from what is being said. It is good to understand the messages that are spoken, not what we think was spoken.
I'm finding that what I write is mostly misunderstood by some, and sometimes by myself, if I read it again!
Andrea, I agree with you
The beautiful thing about reading what someone has written is that it means different things to you at different times in your life.
That was true of Grandpa Dunn's history. I was about 20 when I read it and thought it was interesting and then set it aside. When I typed it in again recently, it meant something entirely different because I brought a different set of experiences to the reading.
I have a way of saying the wrong things. Some I dare not mention in order to not induce negative memories. Maybe some day I can relate a couple incidents where I have put my no. 10.5 in my oral orafice.
I too have a way of saying the wrong things at the wrong time.
I have also been guilty at taking offence at things that were not intended the way I interpreted them. I am getting better at trying not to do that. Questions can resolve a lot of those issues for me. Betty is also good at helping me see things more clearly.
Communication is such a difficult thing. Exchange of sentiments and ideas are frequently subverted by ones own imagination.
That's one of the reasons that a dozen people can attend a sacrament meeting and leave with thirteen different ideas of what the message was.
My imagination is always working too much.
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